According to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the United States Economy is at an "inflection point" in recovery. Economic prospects are improving, and at the same time, Powell insists that the Federal Reserve will double its efforts to support the labor market.
Economic recovery looks to be picking up rapidly as millions of Americans head back to work. According to Jerome Powell, speaking during an interview with 60 Minutes, current vaccination efforts and fiscal supports are providing the proper support to drive recovery even further.
"What we're seeing now is really an economy that seems to be at an inflection point. And that's because of widespread vaccination and strong fiscal support, strong monetary policy support. We feel like we're at a place where the economy's about to start growing much more quickly and job creation coming in much more quickly," Powell said.
According to Powell's remarks during the interview, it would appear that the Federal Reserve intends to remain an active participant in economic recovery, with the current focus seeming to be putting Americans back to work. Recovery, though, isn't "across-the-board," as some may hope. Powell admitted that some areas of the country are recovering far faster than others, with restaurants and other businesses that rely heavily on interaction with the public suffering the most from a stalled recovery. Unfortunately, there's little that the Fed specifically can do for them, with Powell stating that full recovery would still take time.
Powell later reflected on the rapid evolution of the Pandemic, revealing how terrifying the Federal Reserve's initial worst-case scenarios were. The uncertainty and the ominous predictions were drivers behind Powell's support of the first and second stimulus relief bills.
"We did not know how the economy would perform. We did not know the path of the disease. We had no idea when and how long it would take to do a vaccine," Powell reflected.
The bond market saw a brief ever-so-slight bump after Powell's interview, likely driven by remarks that the Fed didn't plan on raising interest rates anytime soon. 2, 5, 10, and 30-year bonds all saw a very slight pop in yields after Powell's interview aired.